To many in
Singapore and around the region, the name Tan
Kah Kee is synonymous with leadership,
entrepreneurship, philanthropy, social reform
and education. Generations of ACSians are
also familiar with the name as one of the school
houses bears his name for his enormous
contributions to education and ACS.

Recently, 102
descendants of Tan Kah Kee (also known as Chen
Jia-Keng) from all over the world were invited
by the Jimei District Municipal Government, the
Xiamen Municipal Government and the
Central/Xiamen United Front Party to witness the
grand opening of the Tan Kah Kee Memorial Museum
at Jimei, China, and also to celebrate the 90th
anniversary of Jimei schools and university.
Among them were 19 ACSians from Singapore, USA,
Canada, Hong Kong, Shanghai, UK and Australia –
the eldest being Tan Guan Chay, age 92, the
seventh son of Tan Kah Kee.

At all the
official functions, the red carpet was laid down
for us; our hosts spared no efforts and the
entertainment of songs and dances was just
spectacular. However, the highlight and perhaps
our proudest moment was the tremendous applause
we received from about 20,000 students as we
marched up the stage in the Jimei school
auditorium to be introduced as the Tan Kah Kee
descendants. What really touched us was a
“Welcome Home” banner carried by a couple of
students in the dress circle. At another
official function, we were overwhelmed by the
colourful lion and dragon dances in the Jimei
school sports stadium packed with over 70,000
spectators.

At Xiamen
University, which was also started by Tan Kah
Kee, we had a bird’s eye view of the campus from
the 21st floor of the University building. We
were filled with great pride as another banner
displayed the words “A Warm Welcome to the
delegation of Mr Tan Kah Kee’s descendants to
Xiamen University”.
The enormous achievements and contributions by
Tan Kah Kee especially towards education are awe
inspiring and what prompted Tan Kah Kee to take
action in his own hometown of Chi Mei (Jimei)
was his personal experience during his tours of
various villages in 1912. After observing many
young children without clothes and school
indulging in gambling, he committed himself in
1913 to provide primary, secondary, tertiary,
professional and vocational education in Chi Mei
and Amoy (now known as Xiamen).

Tan Kah Kee
spent over fifty years in Singapore between 1890
and 1950, these being some of the best and most
productive years of his life. However, it must
be remembered that Tan Kah Kee’s Chinese
background covered a traumatic and painful era
that encompassed a vast and exciting
revolutionary change in China and the rapid
socio-political change in South East Asia. He
made generous donations to Chinese Schools in
Singapore like Tao Nan, Chung Wah Girls, Ai
Tong, The Chinese High School, just to name a
few. His involvement and the promotion of
English education in Singapore was also
impressive and substantial and on record he
committed a sum of S$100,000 to the proposed
Anglo Chinese School College in 1919. However,
when the plan was aborted due to opposition from
the British authorities, Tan Kah Kee agreed to
transfer $30,000 to Anglo Chinese School as a
donation to its physics and chemistry funds. The
school then adopted his name for one of the
sporting houses.

Besides
owning rubber estates in Singapore and Malaya,
Tan Kah Kee’s other enterprises include rice
mills, pineapple canneries, biscuit factory,
shipping, sweets and confectionery, newsprint (Nanyang
Siang Pau), rubber manufactories like boot,
shoes, hats, tyres, brickworks etc. He also
established a Maritime School as Xiamen is near
the coast.

The recent
visit by the descendants of Tan Kah Kee was
indeed an eye opener especially to the first
time fourth and fifth-generations. For many, the
meeting of so many relatives from all over the
world for the first time was an emotional and
exciting experience as they started to trace the
source of their family tree. Tan Kah Kee had
four marriages with a total of seventeen
children.

The opening of the Tan Kah
Kee Memorial Museum

Descendants at Tan Kah Kee's
former residence.

The Descendants of Tan Kah
Kee

ACSians at Xiamen University

Albert, Helen and son Ken on
the steps of the Museum

The
culmination of Tan Kah Kee’s unique
multi-faceted life history was unfolded with the
opening of the Tan Kah Kee Memorial Museum on 21
October 2008. This impressive four storey museum
to the north of Ao Yuan or Turtle Garden in
Jimei covers an overall area of 100,000 sq. m.
with a total floor space of 11,000 sq. m. The
museum is of Tan Kah Kee’s own architectural
design and inside depicts the life history of an
overseas Chinese legend and the making of an
educationist, industrialist, entrepreneur and
philanthropist.

The visit to
Jimei, Xiamen, Shandong Province and Beijing to
understudy and witness the majestic works and
contributions of Tan Kah Kee was indeed an
emotional, memorable and impressive experience
for us.